This past Friday we had a sisters luncheon and all of the office senior sister missionaries spoke to us. They shared some very inspiring words. Sister Royal counseled us to start praying for our future spouses, which I've actually started doing because for whatever reason I had an impression that I should.
We went to the temple on Saturday, and it was beautiful as ever. We were told they made an even newer temple video, but either that was a rumor or we missed out... still a beautiful experience all the same. We happened to actually run into Brother and sister Royal in the cafeteria and we ate together. Brother (elder?) Royal served his mission in Tallahassee Florida.
Yes, sister Abernathy and I are doing great, and by the end of this last week I felt so happy! Thank you for your prayers. :) We set the Ventura family with a date for the 12th of April. It was cool because Alma really opened up. The member we brought with us asked them in the middle of the lesson when they were getting baptized, which was a little random, but worked out great because Alma got frustrated to the point of tears and explained to us that she is torn right now between two churches and desperately wants to know the truth, but needs to find out for herself and make that decision before telling anyone where and when she wants to get baptized. It helped us better know her concerns. I read a scripture from Galatians where it talks about the fruits of the spirit and we testified of how she can receive that answer. Alma and Francisco both were in tears by the end of the lesson. They were hesitant towards the date, but we cleverly helped them realize that the 12th is a date they are striving for, preparing for...and promised them that they can receive an answer by that time and be baptized on that date if they do their part because we have prayed about it and received confirmation that it is possible. They felt better about it towards the end and said yes.
I wish I could tell you the weekend ended on a completely perfect note, though....it didn't.
On Thursday we taught Isidro the word of wisdom for the second time with Aracely and Jorge as our lovely fellow shippers. We wanted to go over it again because when we screened him for baptism, he got confused as to what the WOW was. So anyway, the lesson went really well and he remembered the 5 specific things he should avoid before we even started the lesson. He had been studying! He assured us many times that he had no problems with anything, even his friends he lives with (who love to get drunk) told us he doesn't have problems with alcohol or smoking - he can't even push it with alcohol because of his leg. And so he committed to live it and we moved his date up a week to the 15th of March because we didn't have enough time to teach/review everything with him before the 8th. We even gave him a calender and planned out all the times we would come by before the 15th. Fast forward to Saturday and he calls us to cancel the appointment we had with him that night. Still, we felt like we should stop by just to see how he was doing and why he canceled and there were drunk men all inside of the house, one of which opened the door. We asked him if Isidro was there and he told us Isidro was drinking. We were shocked to hear that and right then, standing by the door way we see a stumbling, WASTED Isidro enter the living room and fall on the couch. It was a very disturbing sight, and he had the typical 'caught in the act' reaction. THEN Enrique, who owns the house, points at Isidro and goes, "there's the drunk!" And then shoves Isidro out of the house towards us saying, "here, get out of my house! Go home with them!" We were absolutely dumbfounded and Isidro was just spouting off drunken slurrs, but kept saying, "bien bonitas, bien bonitas" and things like, "no es mi casa, no es mi casa.." We announced we were leaving, speed walked to the car and he tried to follow after us calling, "disculpe! Me perdona!" He of course didn't come to church the next morning.
I can't explain to you how disturbing it was. Hearing someone else say that Isidro was drinking was bad enough, but actually seeing him drunk out of his mind and caught right there in the act was a very creepy experience and an image I wish I could get out of my head completely. To add to it, I know people have problems that we have to help them overcome, but it's one thing when we are aware of those issues and another when we are lied to to believe that the word of wisdom wasn't even at all a problem for him, especially drinking. We can't help people when they're not even willing to be honest with us about their problems. It's scary, too, because we stressed the seriousness of it and made sure he committed to live it, understanding that if he says he will and then goes and does something like.... get drunk 2 days later, especially after baptism, there are consequences. That night I was in a weird state of mind. My eyes were more opened to what it is I'm fighting against. It's widened my perspective, I think.
When we got home that night, we read Doctrine and Covenants 132 together. Super intense chapter, you should read it right now! I feel even more determined now to do everything in my power to ensure I'm on Satan's bad side. We had received so many confirmations that Isidro was ready, that the Lord wanted him right now. We invested so much time into helping him come closer to his Savior. we've seen miracles with him and I even had to defend him at times when my own companion was impatient with his level of understanding. When you grow to love investigators it's like they're your kids in a way. And it effected me to see what I did Saturday night. But Isidro has his agency. (Don't worry, we didn't just drop him. We passed him to the elders because we as women can't continue going over there with the whole 'go home with them' and 'bien bonitas' comments. We'll still see him at church and go to his baptism if he makes it.) It made me think about my future family and how it would feel to see my children willingly disobey my counsel - the Lord's counsel. Then I felt sorrow for all of the times I put you through similar experiences. It truly is a disturbing thing.
Sister Abernathy and I talked about it for a while on Sunday and I came to realize something else. I truly believed we did all that we could possibly do with him. If someone is showing all the signs of progression - keeping commitments, going to church, wanting to be baptized - our duty as missionaries is to get them there. We had no way of knowing he was being dishonest with us. We could have better helped him if we were aware of any of these things he struggles with. When I was in the MTC we had a devotional where the speaker explained to us that at times we seek the Lord's guidance through prayer and don't always get a clear, direct answer right away. Sometimes we just have to act on the good feelings we have and trust that if we are doing the wrong thing, the Lord won't let us go too far without letting us know something needs to change. I think that's what happened. We didn't do anything wrong. We did what we were supposed to do. And the lord stepped in and showed us what was really going on. We could have baptized him without knowing any of that took place. But the Lord kept His promise and guided us back on the right course before it got too far. Sister Abernathy said my thoughts on that were an answer to her prayers because she was worried we should have seen the warning signs earlier or something.
So... that's what's going on with Isidro right now. I'll keep you updated as we hear word from the elders.
Janet is doing well. She might get baptized on the 8th actually, but we're not sure yet. could still be the 15th.
Speaking of this whole Isidro thing, though, I gotta tell you, I'm really fired up about fighting in the front lines of this war of souls. I was running this morning and the one thing that kept running through my head was, 'I bet Satan's jealous right now because I can run around in the beautiful weather with my healthy body.' Haha. Sister Neal also spoke at the sister luncheon on Friday and was sharing her conversion story. There was a time in her life when she was very discouraged and someone told her that if Satan can destroy her, he destroys her children and her husband as well. He drags the whole family down with her. That gave her a lot of motivation to fight for the sake of her family. That made me want to follow her example. I cannot afford to let Satan win over me. I'm finishing my mission soon and It's going to be hard to go back to living among all of those same temptations that I often fell victim to before. I cannot afford to let that happen again. Not only for my sake, but for my family. For my future family's sake even. My children need a righteous mother who will lead them to walk in the Savior's footsteps. So more than anything I'm inspired and I've been holding onto a more eternal perspective.
Love you all!!!!!
Read D&C 132.
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